Dating services, especially online dating services, are increasing in popularity. Online dating services are Internet based services that allow their users to meet for (usually) romantic purposes. Online dating services usually allow a user to store a profile, describing him/her self, to search and look at other users' profiles and to contact other users. Many online dating services allow profiles to include photos, video clips, sound clips, etc. Profiles are usually available over the Internet.
Although online dating services utilize different business models, they usually charge users for the privilege of performing certain actions. Very often users are charged for the ability to contact other users.
Because of the nature of the Internet, the online dating service business is one with a relatively low cost of entry and high competition. For this reason, many online dating services try to add new features, in order to distinguish themselves from their competitors. Another way for an online dating service to distinguish itself from competitors, is by having a large number of users in comparison with competitive services. A large number of users usually means greater choice, and thus a higher probability of a good match for each user trying to locate a suitable match. In order to increase the number of users, online dating services typically improve ease of access, which is very important for users.
One of the most important, but difficult features of an online dating service, is the ability to selectively broadcast information. An online dating service must provide enough information about a user in order to pique the interest of a potential date. Yet the online dating service must be careful not to provide too much information and thus compromise the user's privacy, or maybe even put the user in danger. For this reason, many online dating services do not disclose contact information (such as email addresses) about users, but serve as intermediaries, forwarding messages between users (the intermediary role also makes it easier for online dating services to charge their users for sending messages to other users).
Because of privacy concerns, users of online dating services usually refer to other users by their profile names. A profile name is an alias that is associated with a user profile and identifies a user to other users. Some online dating services allow for users to have multiple profiles, and thus multiple profile names.
On the other hand, the semi-anonymous nature of online dating services, while necessary to preserve privacy, makes users' profiles untrustworthy. Anonymity usually prevents accountability and allows for dishonest behavior.
One of the most valuable features of online dating services is the ability to handle photographs of users. Users feel better and safer about communicating with other users if they know what the other users look like. In fact, the availability of photographs is often seen as a selling point for many online dating services. Most existing online dating services already provide the ability to add photographs and other multimedia information (such as sound, video clips, etc) to profiles. Some online dating services also allow users to send pictures and other multimedia information to other users without adding the pictures and other multimedia information to their profile.
In order for a user to make a picture available on his/her profile, or to send a picture to another user, the user must obtain a picture in digital format. The user must then send the picture over an Internet connection to a server belonging to the online dating service. These actions require the use of a computer which is connected to the Internet or another Internet enabled electronic device. The user must also have some knowledge of file management and/or Internet file transfer. These technical requirements prevent many users from sharing their photographs through online dating services. Also, the relatively cumbersome process of sending photos affects the nature of the photos. Photos are usually not spontaneous and are often rehearsed.
Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) is an emerging field of cellular telephony. Multimedia Messaging Services allows users to send and receive multimedia messages from and/or to cellular phones. Multimedia messages may include video, audio, photographs, or other information. A cellular phone need not be Internet capable in order to be MMS capable. Thus, cellular phones that have MMS capabilities (MMS phones) are not necessarily Internet devices.
More recently, cellular telephones are being provided with digital cameras. Digital camera MMS phones allow a user to take digital photographs and transmit them through an MMS message.
However, current MMS technology requires that a user wishing to send a message know the cellular number of the receiving party. In addition, the sender usually must disclose his/her cellular phone number as well. This makes existing MMS services unsuitable for augmenting dating services, because one's cellular phone number is often considered too private to disclose as part of a dating service.